Glacier National Park

The epic mountain scenery of Glacier National Park can stir the spirit in mystical ways. The Blackfeet Indians find its beauty so awesome that they believe the area sacred ground, and Scottish-born American naturalist John Muir considered Glacier National Park “the best care-killing scenery on the continent”. Often called the ‘Crown of the Continent’ for its staggeringly rugged skyline, Glacier and its Canadian sister, Waterton Lakes National Park, together make up the world’s first International Peace Park. “If it isn’t God’s backyard,” quipped comedian Robin Williams, “he certainly lives nearby.”

Glacier Park’s soul-stirring landscape was crafted by the movement of massive glaciers, excavating valleys, many of which filled with lakes, and carving horns and cirques along mountain peaks. The distinctive fin-like ridges that divide major watersheds look like upside-down boats, keels pointed skyward. The park’s dramatic terrain is prime hiking and trekking territory, with more than 700 miles of maintained trails that pass through vibrant wildflower meadows and along multicoloured rocky cliffs and slopes filled with the torch-like flowers of bear grass. As one of the most intact ecosystems anywhere in the temperate zone, it offers good opportunities for glimpsing wildlife, with a list that will keep any visitor busy—moose, bighorn sheep, elk, mountain lions, lynx, martens, fishers, wolverines, plus black and grizzly bears (with a population of around 300, the park has the largest concentration of grizzlies in the contiguous U.S.).

The park also boasts one of the world’s most spectacular mountain drives, the 50-mile-long Going-to-the-Sun Road. The three-hour route roughly bisects the two-million-acre wilderness, climbing from lake basins to the summit of the Continental Divide at 6,646-foot Logan Pass (the highlight of the trip, with fragile alpine meadows unfolding below sharp-toothed crags), passing as many as a thousand seasonal waterfalls among dense evergreen forests along the way.

There are currently 25 named glaciers within the park, down from about 150 in the mid-1800s. At this rate, experts believe the park’s namesake glaciers will all but disappear by 2030.

The Great Northern Railway built massive log-and-stone lodges here in the early 1900s to lure the first vacationers, and of these, the Swiss-style Many Glacier Hotel is perhaps the most beautifully situated and popular. Sitting regal and isolated amid alpine grandeur on the banks of Swiftcurrent Lake, it is brimming with tradition. About 65 miles to the west, the charming Lake McDonald Lodge sits alongside its namesake lake. It has a rugged air that permeates its film-set lobby decorated with trophy heads and a vast walk-in fireplace bordered by images resembling cave art, rumoured to have been drawn by Charlie Russell.

Avid hikers will consider Glacier’s stone-built backcountry chalets the park’s top lodging choices. Recently reopened after several decades of extensive renovation, Granite Park Chalet, a mountain shelter with lodgings and kitchen facilities, is reached after a seven-mile hike, while Sperry Chalet, also only reached by foot, is midway between Logan Pass and Lake McDonald Lodge. More accessible and just outside the park’s southern boundary is the beloved Izaak Walton Inn. Built in 1939 as a residence for rail workers, the three-storey alpine-style lodge is now known for its cosy Old World atmosphere, its excellent fishing and cross-country skiing in the winter months.